If I buy a phone off ebay, does it cost anything to connect it to my account?

Verizon didn’t charge me for activation. I called ahead and checked. I don’t know if that’s standard practice.

I bought from an independent vendor, but not eBay. Loved the phone, except that it didn’t work. I ended up having to return it and select something I didn’t really like from the available in-store offerings.

We’ve purchased a few “unlocked” phones from Craigslist & Ebay – and here’s been our experience – albeit with TMobile & AT&T:

- As long as you aren’t under contract w/ a particular device and/or don’t require a new data plan to support your newly purchased phone (which means you are making NO changes to your services, just moving the number to a new device) there should be no expense.

- You may need a new SIM card if your current phone’s SIM card cannot fit into the new the phone. (Many newer phones have smaller and smaller micro SIM cards). If you need a new micro SIM sometimes your phone company may attempt to charge for the new SIM. In our case T-Mobile did not charge us. If there IS a charge, there are often tools you can purchase online (like this one) to trim down your old SIM card all on your own.

Also, Ebay has a helpful page explaning some of this info.. You might want to read that link, too.

..AH, and last and most importantly.. I see you’ll be very constrained because US Cellular is a CDMA network—so I don’t think it’s possible for you to add a non-supported device to their network.
Info on all networks and carriers here.

If I were in your shoes (and if you plan to continue to stay with US Cellular) I would call them first before making a purchase of a new phone to make sure it would be possible to use it on their network.

As long as the phone is unlocked, and isn’t a CDMA phone, and nor is your network, all you have to do is change the sim over from your current phone to the new phone, OR buy a new sim if you wish to have a new account. BYO phone accounts are generally cheaper, at least in Australia.

If you’re replacing your current phone and the sim the phone uses is a different size (eg your current phone uses a microsim while the new one uses a nano sim) then your carrier may charge a small fee to replace the sim. Mine changed $30 AUD but also gave me $30 AUD credit (It’s prepaid) for the account too… So I feel I came out on top with that.